REGENERATION
As the Eden Project Café opens in St Austell, Kath Hudson meets the team and fi nds out that it’s just part of the dream for a brighter future for the Cornish town
t feels like the start of spring in the Eden Project Café: the glass doors (double-glazed, naturally) are being fl ung open, the sun is pouring in and it feels warm. Let’s hope this is symbolic of a fresh start for its hometown, St Austell. I’m meeting Eden’s sustainabil- ity manager, Caron Thompson, and architect, Tom Drury, who is respon- sible for the design of the £360,000, 100-cover café, so today I have a dictaphone and notebook. Last week, I was here with my children, making ‘self portraits’ with clothes pegs, pipe- cleaners, material and sequins, while
GREEN I
my daughter wore a ladybird outfi t from the dressing-up box. So far, I have bought tasty homemade bread, locally- grown fresh parsnips, had a takeaway salad box for lunch, earned a free cof- fee on my loyalty card and swapped a book. Here today, there are two eld- erly ladies dragging shopping trolleys, mothers and toddlers, a couple of peo- ple with laptops taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi, some business peo- ple having a meeting and the mayor of St Austell having coffee. The aim was to create a community café and Eden appears to have pulled it off. The Eden Project Café is the fi rst
spin off venture for the Eden Project, which is located in a disused clay pit a couple of miles outside of St Austell. The town of St Austell is mostly bypassed by the million annual visi- tors to the attraction and is frequently disparaged by its neighbours and residents. Over the past couple of dec- ades, as the once thriving china clay industry has dwindled, the town has become increasingly dejected. Although it has a gorgeous bay nearby and an historic port, the town centre itself has become dreary, with high numbers of empty shops. While other Cornish towns have established positive identities, St Austell has somehow failed to do so. Symbolic of its demise is the Cornwall Coliseum, at Carlyon Bay: in its heyday it hosted bands like The Who and The Smiths. Now it's a derelict eyesore.
A BRIGHTER FUTURE But, happily, it’s no longer all doom and gloom for the town, as some major initiatives are underway to kick- start its regeneration. Commercial Estates Group is currently working on
While the Eden Project attracts millions of visitors, the majority bypass nearby St Austell
56 Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital ISSUE 2 2011 © cybertrek 2010
DREAM
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